Every F A cup giant killing since 1888

Wembley opened its doors for the first time for the 1923 cup final and Second Division West Ham fought their way through to the final for the first time but you won't find any mention of their giant killing exploits that season simply because there were none. The Hammers enjoyed the kind of luck of the draw that most Championship fans can only dream of as they faced lower division opposition in every round before eventually losing to top flight Bolton in the final. Charlton Athletic enjoyed their first ever cup victory over top flight opponents this year and enjoyed it so much that they did it twice more.

Bradford were the first club in League history to suffer consecutive relegations, having fallen from the top flight to division three in the two previous terms. In this season Bradford were fighting hard to try and make their way back up the ladder, chasing Nelson for the solitary promotion spot available from the Northern section of the division. The FA cup was probably an unwelcome distraction as they travelled back to Goodison Park where they had gained a draw as a top flight club two seasons earlier but only keeper and former England international, Ernie Scattergood, veteran right half, David Howie and young outside left, Harold Peel remained from that side. Northern Ireland international Andy McCluggage had arrived earlier in the season and despite leading for most of the game, Bradford were pegged back late on by an Everton side much improved from the team that had played two seasons earlier. Few took any notice of the replay at the famed Park Avenue stadium where Everton were described by the press as a side that would 'comfortably progress' despite the fact that Bradford were unbeaten in all nine games there during the season. The game turned on a first half incident where Everton captain, Hunter Hart kicked out at Hugh Hubbert and was promptly dismissed from the field for violent conduct. With a man advatntage Bradford chose to switch from the customary 2-3-5 formation to a 2-4-4 formation in the hope of stifling the ten men in midfield and it worked as Everton were unable to break the home side down. Then, with the crowd preparing for extra time, George McLean scored a last gasp winner that gave the visitors no chance of a fightback. In the second round Bradford were outclassed 1-4 at division three south Plymouth who, like Bradford would suffer the heartache of finishing runners up in their section, failing to gain promotion. It would be 1928 before Park Avenue again saw second division football, by which time McCluggage had left for top flight Burnley while Peel had gone to Arsenal. Winning scorer McLean also made it to the top flight when he signed for Huddersfield in 1930.

{Image right: Gilbert Brookes manages to prevent a Stoke team mate putting the ball in his own net}

It was almost a year to the day since Stoke had last visited Gigg Lane, scoring a 1-0 victory on their way to promotion to the top flight. The Potters were struggling back among the elite and were heading for instant relegation back into the second tier when they returned to Bury for this cup tie. The Shakers were at the right end of the second division and easily swept Stoke aside before losing a replayed third round tie to Southampton. Nobody has played more times for Bury than third goal scorer Norman Bullock who, along with Billy Richardson, Tom Adamson, David Robbie and Billy Stage were all still in the side that defeated Stoke again in March 1924 on their way to promotion to the top flight.

Third division champions Southampton entered the FA cup as a second division outfit for the first time in 1922 and made quite an impact, reaching the quarter finals before going down in a second replay to West Ham. The Saints were experiencing as inconsistant a season in the league as they could possibly get with fourteen wins, fourteen draws and fourteen defeats giving them forty-two points for forty-two games and for good measure they leaked the same number of league goals as they scored, sharing eighty goals with their opponents. The cup run was quite different as they started by holding high flying Newcastle to a draw at St James' Park to bring them back to The Dell. Twenty thousand turned up to see if the Saints could repeat their giant killing of the Magpies twenty-three years earlier but they got off to the worst possible start, going behind in the first thirty seconds. Southampton responded brilliantly and turned the game on its head in the next twenty minutes as Arthur Dominy struck twice. It was no surprise that Newcastle improved in the second half but were caught out by Bill Rawlings on the hour when Saint's England International completed a comprehensive defeat of the Magpies in which Dominy was named the man of the match by the press. In round two Saints travelled to relegation haunted Chelsea who, since their first round victory over Rotherham had played Newcastle both home and away in the league, as was the custom in the early 1920s, winning 3-0 at the Bridge and getting a draw in the north east. Again Saints forced a replay in a game in which the biggest danger for those present was falling asleep and missing the tube or train home. The game at The Dell was much better with Charlie Brown firing the home side into a half time advantage on the half hour. The heavens opened in the second period as the rain fell in torrents on the players and spectators while Chelsea's Harry Ford came closest to forcing extra time when hitting the bar. The visitors ran out of steam in the closing stages though and it was the Saints who finished the more likely to score again in a deserved victory. Replays were also needed against Second division Bury in round three before losing their marathon last eight tie against eventual cup finalists, West Ham. England man Rawlings would later experience the top flight with Manchester United, as would Dominy at Everton and Bill Turner with Bury while Jack Elkes was one of two men in the side who had already played at the highest level, having been at Birmingham. He later joined Tottenham while keeper Tommy Allen had enjoyed a season at Sunderland but by far the most successful member of the side was Tom Parker who signed for Arsenal in 1926, lifting both the FA Cup in 1930 and League title as captain in 1931 as well as gaining one England cap while still at The Dell.

South Shields hold the distinction of being the first lower division club to defeat a top flight side in the cup with the aid of players born in the twentieth century as they silenced the Ewood Park faithfull in this replayed second round tie. The team from the edge of Newcastle were an undistinguished second division outfit at the time that surprisingly had no top flight experience to call on. They did have an England international in Ernie Simms, a first world war veteran who carried injuries so severe that he walked with a profound limp and ran in a very unusual manner but whose detemination to return to fitness and play football again had made him a wartime celebrity. This tie did much to add weight to the old favourite sayings about the cup being the great leveller and the old addage of top flight clubs being more beatable on gluepot pitches as Rover's playng surface was in a terrible state. No doubt modern day referees would have declared the pitch unplayable but such ideas were rarely considered in the 20s and Blackburn became their own worst enemies by trying to play their usual passing game. The ball naturally got stuck almost as often as it found its way to the intended player the pass was aimed at and this allowed the visitors, more used to such surfaces, the time to get in and clear any danger with the good old fashioned heafty boot as hard upfield as the ball would go. Blackburn never got to grips with the conditions despite dominating the play and were caught in one of just four meaningful attacks South Shieldsmade during the entire game as Jack Smith netted the winner early in the second half. In the third round the tables were turned when Shields became victoms of a giant killing themselves when humbled by third division QPR. The North East side never made it to the top flight but three of their team did with winning scorer, Jack Smith playing in the 1929 cup final for Portsmouth while Alf Maitland went on to win the title in 1927 with Newcastle.

Charlton Athletic were in only their second season as a League club in January 1923 when they earned a trip to Hyde Road to face First Division Manchester City in a tie that attracted media attention only for the fact that this was the first time the Addicks had reached the first round of the competition. The tie meant a return to his footballing spiritual home for Arthur Whalley, albeit to the city rivals as Whalley had been a crowd favourite at Old Trafford in Manchester United's first title winning side before being disgraced in the 1915 match fixing scandal, which had secured United's place in the top flight at the expense of Chelsea.

The lifetime ban imposed on Whalley for helping fix the 2-0 win over Liverpool, even though he himself hadn't taken part in the game, was rescinded in return for his volunteering for the front during world war one. As it was it proved to be the war, rather than the FA who robbed him of the remaining years of his top flight career and after the war he never returned to the elite, finding himself in the Third Division as a thirty-seven year old veteran.

If any City fans had forgotten the former United star he made sure they remembered him in scoring the sensational winning goal to kick start a great cup run that would take them to the quarter finals. At Hyde Road the Addicks were never troubled in the first half and deservedly led through Goodman at the break. Tommy Johnson gave City the early equaliser they so desperately needed and a second goal looked inevitable for most of the remainder of the game before Whalley stunned the home fans.

Unsurprisingly the press called the result a fluke against a City side who had only been beaten once at home that season and Charlton's run would be ended by last season's cup runners up, Preston, despite the fact that they were not as good a side as City and would have to travel to Charlton's Valley.

Over 20,000 were there to see Preston start well but the longer Charlton went without conceding a goal the more they grew in confidence and went in at the interval on level terms. The second half started in sensational fashion with Kosher Goodman opening the scoring with a thirty yard screamer, which left North End keeper, Branston, helpless. Preston had no time to recover before Steve Smith doubled the Third Division club's advantage, which they held to the end. This time the press had to take their hats off and admit that this was no fluke and that Charlton had deservedly won both games with Whalley again being hailed as the hero.

West Bromwich Albion were drawn to travel to the Valley in round three with the press now speculating if the giant killers could do it again and book a quarter final slot. The match proved to be a cracker but only one goal settled it as one eyed Bob Thomson, a cup finalist with Chelsea in 1915 saw his long range shot parried by Pearson into the path of Goodman who yet again proved the goal hero for the third time. Albion had their chances but so too did Charlton and nobody dared suggest any element of fluke to this victory as the Addicks became the first team from the Third Division to defeat three top flight clubs in a cup run.

Cup fever had hit by the time of Bolton's visit in the quarter finals and Charlton yet again put in an excellent display only to miss out to a solitary goal to the side who eventually went on to win the cup. Unlike so many other teams who have enjoyed such cup runs, Charlton didn't enjoy a sudden upturn in league fortunes and remained a mid table Third Division outfit before securing a very unexpected promotion in 1929 while Seth Plum was rewarded for his efforts in the cup run by becoming Charlton's first ever international for England against France in May.

The once proud name of Derby County couldn't have been lower in 1923 with the club facing mounting debts and the very real prospect of being forced to fold at the end of the season. Then came a cup run that wiped out over half the clubs debt and set them back on a road that would lead to promotion back to the top flight in 1926. Despite being relegated in 1921 The Rams had retained the services of five of their top flight side and had won through to the quarter finals of the cup with wins over two sides riding higher than them in the second tier, Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday with a comfortable victory in between over promotion bound third tier outfit, Bristol City all without conceding a goal. Mid table Totenham had already endured their banana skin in this year's competition when being held at home in the first round by non league Worksop Town. They bought the rights to the replay from the minnows before lashing out a nine goal spanking but other than their top flight status Derby had nothing to fear from a run of the mill Spurs side. Rams legend Steve Bloomer arrived at The Baseball Ground to coach the team in the build up to the visit to White Hart Lane where Over 50,000 fans turned up to ensure Derby were financial winners if nothing else, their directors no doubt breathing a huge sigh of relief at the thought of the gate reciepts alone but the stage was set for on the field joy as well when Spud Murphy cracked a shot of the Tottenham woodwork within thirty seconds. Tottenham were handicapped early on when Tommy Clay took a bad knock that had him limping for most of the first half but he had nothing to do with the gift of a goal that Randolf Galloway was given before the break. A Derby free kick looked set to come to nothing as it drifted to Arthur Grimsdell only for the Spurs centre half to allow the ball to pass him. Grimsdell looked around expecting to see team mate Bob Brown calmly dealing with the situation only to find to his horror that Brown was out of position and that Galloway instead was gleefully tapping the ball past a helpless Herbert Blake and into the net. It proved the only goal of a keenly contested game and set up an all second division clash in the semi finals with West Ham The Rams fans had every right to be confident that they would win the game at Stamford Bridge, having won and drawn their league games with the Hammers earlier in the season but the London club had improved since those early setbacks and were heading for promotion by the time of the semi final, carrying their better form into the game to win 5-2. Derby's consolation was the financial reward of the cup run and the call up of two of their side, George Thornewell and Jim Moore for England in May. Both these, along with Derby's third England man, Bert Olney, Tommy Crilly, Johnny McIntyre, Harry Thoms, Syd Plackett and Spud Murphy were all still in the side that restored Derby's top flight status in 1926 while Thornewell went on to win the cup with Blackburn in 1928. Winning goalscorer Randolf Galloway went on to greater fame on the continent, coaching a host of clubs in Spain and Portugal including guiding Sporting Club to three Portuguese titles in the early 1950s.